doubt) amongst “Indian Pythons and Boa Constrictors,” I was warned off by the legend, “Admission, Sixpence.”  It was then I remembered that, after all, I was in an Aquarium, and, consequently, had no right to expect anything but fish.  So I approached the tanks, and, to my great delight, found in one of them some floating bodies, that I am almost sure must have been herrings.  Having thus gratified my curiosity for the strange and the curious, I returned, well satisfied, to the country, where I purpose remaining a further term of next twenty years.  In the meanwhile, believe me, Dear Mr. Punch,

Yours sincerely, ONE EASILY PLEASED.

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Something very big.—­“The principal role (Falstaff), in VERDI’s new comic Opera is amplified and enlarged,” writes a special Correspondent to The Standard, “from the Falstaff of the other plays (besides the Merry Wives) in which he takes a part.”  “Takes a part!” Good Heavens! Falstaff “amplified and enlarged” will be something more than a part.  It will be that mathematical impossibility, “a part greater than the whole.”  Surely, with such a role in it, this can’t be a light Opera.

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

Golden Bells, rung by DEAN AND SON,—­quite appropriately ecclesiastical this,—­and edited by Mrs. ELIZABETH DAY, will ring forth peals of delight in the nursery, it being the Christmas number of The Little One’s Own Paper.

[Illustration]

Arrowsmith’s Christmas Annual, by WALTER BESANT, bears the cheerful and seasonable title of “The Demoniac.”

Mr. HYNE’s Four Red Nightcaps is somewhat in the style of Three Men in a Boat, only there are “Four men in a Yacht.”

Most of the Magazines have their special numbers of these. The English Illustrated Harper’s, The Century, are got up with the most charming illustrations.

The Gentlewoman has her first Christmas Number, and,—­so like her!—­a coloured satin picture! The Pictorial World has two good pictures for framing.

The Baron liketh much the latest contribution to the Rosslyn Series, edited by Earl HODGSON, who is of the Peerage of Parnassus, as you won’t find this Earl in Brett’s Peerage.  The Baron congratulates the Earl, and has also sent an order for a pound of laurels wherewith to decorate the brow of WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.  Among the many gems of his songs let me select “A Continuation”—­there would have been “a pair of continuations,” could he have rivalled himself; then “Lalage,” and “The Chansonnette,” which, with “Rizzio to Marie Stuart,” ought to be set to music by a gifted composer.  There are also some delightful verses to “Old Court Trinity,” which will delight all Trinitarians of Cambridge—­“cum multis aliis”—­to quote the ancient Roman singer, so, as a short way with our Poet POLLOCK, the classic Baron, remembering how the ancients swore “By Pollux!” adapts the ejaculation, and says, “Buy POLLOCK’s—­book.”